TUSCALOOSA, Alabama -- The Tuscaloosa City Council could decide on establishing three fees at the Tuscaloosa Regional Airport as early as May 28.

The fees would be levied on fuel delivered at the airport, on landings of commercial aircraft and on aircraft operations during special events including University of Alabama football games.

Tuscaloosa Department of Transportation director Tera Tubbs first recommended those fees after the Federal Aviation Administration announced it would stop funding air traffic control tower operations at 149 airports including those in Tuscaloosa and Dothan.

Tubbs told the council's Finance Committee Tuesday there is no indication if the deadline extension is for the FAA to put the towers in the agency's budget next year, or if the FAA postponed those closures to allow local entities to put tower operation costs in their budgets.

The new deadline gives the city more time to be prepared, but it also comes in the middle of football season, when the airport is at its busiest.

Tubbs said she recommended proceeding with creating city job descriptions for tower controllers and continue to monitor the situation with the hope that the city will get more information over the next few weeks.

The Tuscaloosa City Council could consider enacting the new fees at its next meeting on May 28. The three fees are on fuel flowage, a per-gallon fee on all fuel delivered to the airport; a landing fee for commercial aircraft based on weight; and a flat special event fee that would go into effect on UA football game weekends.

"I think it's important that they go into effect before football season, because the way we work with our football fans is that what we do for the first game they expect to do the whole season," Tubbs said.

Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox suggested that if the fees are adopted, revenues should be earmarked to be used solely for the airport, which is subsidized by the city with around $600,000 a year. The city also operates a fire station at the airport. He said the proposed new revenues added to leases will not come near funding the cost of operating the airport, but that the airport has an "indirect value" that creates an economic benefit to the city.

Tubbs said the city would work to make sure that information on the new fees goes out to airport users. Visitors on UA game weekends would be contacted about the proposed fees through the university and through the airport's reservation system.

City Attorney Tim Nunnally said his office has been researching the fuel flowage fee, and recommended it be included in the proposed ordinance with a provision to clear up any issues that may arise from an old statute. That rule prohibits municipalities in Tuscaloosa from putting a per volume fee on fuel, but includes jet fuel among its exceptions. The provision would put the fee as a percentage of the sale if the per-gallon fee is declared invalid.

Tubbs said the FAA's decision to end furloughs and extend the tower closures could affect the airport's access to capital improvement funds, as the FAA took funding from its improvements program to put into their operating budget.